Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Brady Anti Gun Rights Campaign has ramped up its opposition to firearms on college campuses again after yet another defeat in the Courtroom. This comes after the Colorado Supreme Court held that the University of Colorado had limited power to ban guns on campus after the State passed a concealed carry law. A Colorado lower Court Judge upheld the ban but he was reversed by the State's highest Court.

The new President of the organization said, "This is a dangerous ruling. Lives have the potential to be lost as a result. We urge parents, students, and faculty to demand that the University do all it can to keep guns off campus and prevail on their elected officials to reverse this ruling. The University of Oregon has reinstated its gun ban despite a similar court ruling. The Brady Center will help the University of Colorado work to keep young people safe from guns. As last week's tragedy in Ohio reminded us all, nothing is more important."

That murdering student was not stopped from coming to a "gun free" Ohio school with a gun and killing people even though there was a school policy and laws against bringing guns to campus. Let alone being stopped by laws against murder.

This group's naive response to the Court's ruling is actually what is dangerous. Yes, lives do have the potential to be lost when helpless victims cannot fight back. This anti gun organization looks you straight in the eye when they say, "We urge parents, students, and faculty to demand that the University do all it can to keep guns off campus."They have already done thatwith a "no guns" policy and laws that has never worked anywhere when a crazed lunatic enters the campus to kill. There is nothing that anyone can do to stop a demented killer from murdering the defenseless except to fight back.

There are no instances that they, or any other anti gun rights group can cite that prove that a "no guns on the premises" policy has ever worked. The names of Cho Seung Ho who left 33 dead and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold with 15 dead come immediately to mind. We can point to the Appalachian School of Law, where a couple of students armed themselves and shot and killed a student who had already killed three people on campus and was preparing to kill more.

God forbid that any of the students or faculty members who were victims at Virginia Tech, or any of the staff at Columbine, or at any other mass school shooting would have been armed and able to fight back. Someone could have been hurt.

Although this is a private organization, this anti gun rights group's activities reminds us of the the activities of many government bureaucracies, agencies, and assorted other commissions whose only justification for existence is to create new and needless regulation. If they do not continually generate junk, then they cannot justify their continued existence. That's why some 6,000 new medical regulations have just been instituted by the Feds. This Colorado ruling does not institute carry at campuses there. It allows the "Students for Concealed Carry" lawsuit against the University of Colorado to be reinstated and continue to proceed against the University.

Here's their press release.

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EDIAPRESS RELEASE

Brady President Dan Gross: Parents, Students, and Faculty Must Demand That Campuses Remain Safe From Guns

Mar 5, 2012

Washington, D.C. – Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center, issued the following statement today on the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that the University of Colorado became limited in its authority to bar guns on campus after the Colorado legislature passed a statewide concealed carry law.

The ruling does not immediately overturn the University’s guns on campus ban, but allows Students for Concealed Carry to proceed with their claim against the University.“This is a dangerous ruling. Lives have the potential to be lost as a result. We urge parents, students, and faculty to demand that the University do all it can to keep guns off campus and prevail on their elected officials to reverse this ruling. The University of Oregon has reinstated its gun ban despite a similar court ruling. The Brady Center will help the University of Colorado work to keep young people safe from guns. As last week's tragedy in Ohio reminded us all, nothing is more important."

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence filed an amicus brief urging the Court to overturn an April 2010 Colorado appeals court ruling allowing a lawsuit that seeks concealed guns on campus to proceed. In 2009, El Paso County District Court Judge G. David Miller had upheld the ban on guns on campus, noting that the University Regents had determined that having guns on campus “threatens the tranquility of the education environment and contributes in an offensive manner to an unacceptable climate of violence.”

Attorneys with the Brady Center's Legal Action Project and Edward Ramey of the Denver law firm of Heizer Paul Grueskin LLP represented the Brady Center. Other groups joining the Brady Center on the brief were the Colorado Ceasefire Capitol Fund and the Greater Denver Million Mom March.